Arial®

The Arial® typeface is one of the most widely used designs of the last 30 years. Drawn in 1982 by Monotype Imaging designers Robin Nicholas and Patricia Saunders for use in an early IBM® laser printer, Arial has become a staple for textual content. While some believe Arial has its design roots in the Helvetica® typeface, its foundation is actually in the Monotype Grotesque® design, drawn at the turn of the last century.

Although created for IBM, it was Microsoft in 1992 that chose to make Arial part of a suite of system fonts for the Windows® 3.1 operating system. That decision gave the design its most important send-off. Since then, Arial has been used on just about every computer and in every textual application imaginable. In addition to being bundled with Windows operating systems, it’s found on the Apple® Mac OS X® operating systems and is embedded in virtually all PostScript®-based laser printers. While only a few Arial fonts are bundled with operating systems and hardware products, there are a large number of variants in the family available to graphic communicators. More than 28 styles exist, which include a range of rounded and monospaced designs.

Because it is easy to read at large and small sizes and in a variety of applications, Arial has been a staple screen font for decades.

Arial, however, has many uses beyond on-screen applications. It has been a popular choice for advertising, book design and office communication. The availability of many narrow widths also makes the typeface suitable for posters and large print ads. In smaller point sizes, Arial is popular for diagram annotations and is an easy-reading typeface for books. Arial is also used in many logos and informational material, such as booklets, educational aids and instruction manuals.

Licenses for desktop fonts

A typical desktop font EULA will allow you to install the font on your computer for use with authoring tools including word processors, design tools and other applications that permit font selection. Fonts can also be used for creation of print documents, static images (JPEG, TIFF, PNG) and logos. The cost of a desktop font license is determined by the number of workstations on which the font is to be used.

Licenses for Fonts.com Web Fonts subscriptions

The Fonts.com Web Fonts license provides access to a selection of fonts for use on websites for use with CSS@font-face. Font delivery from our global network is available through all subscriptions – even our free plan. Some plans include the option to self-host, access to desktop fonts, and use of our FontExplorer X font manager and Typecast design application. The price of a plan is determined by its pageview allowance and other features included.

Licenses for mobile apps

A mobile app license permits the embedding of the font into the iOS, Android or Windows RT mobile platforms. Licenses are platform-specific meaning a separate license is required for each platform the font is embedded into. Licenses remain valid for the total operating life of the app and a new license is not required to cover free updates to the app.

Licenses for electronic publications (eBooks)

An electronic publication license can be used for the embedding of fonts into electronic documents including e-books, e-magazines and e-newspapers. A license covers only a single title but is valid for the full operating life of that title. Every issue of an e-magazine, e-newspaper or other form of e-periodical is considered a separate, new publication. Format variations do not count as separate publications. If a publication is updated and distributed to existing users, a new license is not required. However, updated versions issued to new customers are defined as new publications and require a separate license.

Server licenses

Server licenses authorize the installation of a font on a server that is accessed by remote users or website visitors. These licenses are commonly used by Web-based businesses providing goods that are personalized by its users such as business cards, images with captions and personalized merchandise. Users are not allowed to download the font file and the font may not be used outside the server environment. The font may not be employed for a software as a service (SaaS) application in which the service is the actual product and not the means of providing the product.
Server licenses cover a set number of CPU cores on production servers (development servers are not counted) on which the font is installed. The license is valid for 1 year.